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There’s a lot of buzz in the contract packaging industry right now about different quality certifications. And we can relate to this firsthand. We’ve spent months over the past year researching certifications to decide which one was right for both South Atlantic (in Winston-Salem, NC) and our sister company, ProStar (in Pottstown, PA). In the end, we chose different certifications for our two companies. Seems odd, right? Well, not really. In Winston-Salem, we chose to retain our AIB International certification. One of our key customers required it, and we found it was a great fit for our other projects, even those that were non-food related. For ProStar, we chose to obtain our SQF (Safe Quality Food) certification. It’s a great fit for food packaging, and there is a high concentration of food and beverage manufacturers in Pennsylvania. So, after having now achieved both SQF and AIB certifications, can we say definitively which certification is the better choice for manufacturers and for contract packaging companies like ours? The answer is, "It depends."

For us, the decision ended up being based on 1) what our existing key clients needed and 2) our geographic regions. SQF was definitely the right fit for the Philadelphia area. AIB was a great fit for North Carolina. Having stringent certifications -- along with maintaining that high level of quality and safety -- shows that we are serious about quality. And we are. 

-Julian Bossong

CEO

My job as quality assurance director for both South Atlantic and ProStar Contract Packaging is to help our companies attain -- and maintain -- high-level certifications like AIB and SQF. If you look at the chart above, you'll get an idea of how challenging this really can be. But it's important. And it's important for our manufacturers and for consumers as well. By pairing high-level quality and safety certifications with cutting-edge track and trace technology, we send a message that we aren't just doing contract packaging jobs. We're doing things the right way.

Thanks for reading.

Kim Salvatore

Quality Assurance Director

Today is Flag Day! Read below about a project with over 4.6 million flags. 

Flag Day is today, June 14, and it's a day that brings back great memories for our company. A couple of years ago, we were asked to work on a special flag project. The work itself was easy enough: 1) Take the original packaging and remove all the flags. 2) Remove a rubber band. 3) Reroll the flags. 4) Place four flags in a clear bag and heat-seal them. Simple enough, right? But this project was really about volume. And over a 30-day period, 64 line shifts of our team members created 1,162,056 clear cellophane packs of red-white-and-blue flags. I remember walking down the line and looking at the tidy rows of flags that just embodied American spirit.

As many of you know, this year we moved into an enormous new facility. And long before we transported even one of 34,000 pieces of inventory, we placed a huge American flag right where everyone could see it. We are patriots, and the flag has such incredible meaning - especially for a business. The red of the flag represents hardiness and valor; the white symbolizes purity; and the blue represents vigilance, perseverance and justice. The flag reminds us of how lucky we all are as Americans to be able to work together as a team and to achieve goals we've set for ourselves, and to be free to grow our business by giving the best we can every single day.

Happy Flag Day!

- Pat Grantham

Chief Sales Officer

SOUTH ATLANTIC LEADERSHIP

Julian Bossong, CEO

Steve Burns, COO

Pat Grantham, CSO

Pat Landry, CFO

Kim Salvatore, Quality Assurance Director

Ramon Mathison, Operations Manager

Nelson Posada, Quality Control Officer

Tamara Stafford, Controller